Stayed up way too late and figured out the best way ever to explain my problems with left and right, but sadly it might only make sense to people who have theatre experience or base knowledge of theatre terms.
When someone tells me a direction in left and right terms, it feels like someone spun me around blindfolded then asked me to find stage right.
Sure, you could find stage right while blindfolded eventually, and if you had to do it all the time you'd get better at noticing what you need to in order to do it correctly. You'd learn to listen for which way you hear the audience from, or try to feel how many times you were spun, but there's always going to be that moment of dizzied panic when you're completely disoriented and rushing to find your surroundings before people get impatient.
When I'm asked to distinguish left and right, my brain doesn't have all the concrete information it needs. It's like my brain uses stage directions. I have trouble changing the directions with my changed perspectives. If I turn around, suddenly left isn't the same as it was before, and it scrambles me.
If you wanted to make stage directions easier for someone who's blindfolded, you could consider their perspective, and not talk in stage directions. If they're facing upstage, stage right is to their left. Instead of telling them to go to stage right, you could tell them to just go to their left.
So, if you know someone who struggles with left and right, it's possible that you're speaking in stage directions to someone who is blindfolded. Tell them to turn down the hallway with the water fountain instead of telling them to turn left. They don't have the right information readily available. They can't see the stage. Change your words just a bit, and now they know enough. They might not know they just turned to stage right when you told them to turn to their left, but they're in the right place now.
Obviously this doesn't encapsulate the experience of everyone who struggles directionally, but you can always ask. Can you see the stage?
